decapitated head wrapped in tin foil handed in to police

A police officer of the Municipal Police on duty in Lisbon city centre (Picture: Getty Images)

The missing head of a man whose body was found dumped on a street in Lisbon has been handed in to police.

A student turned up at the city’s São José Hospital yesterday lunchtime with the severed head in his rucksack.

He is due in court later charged with aggravated homicide and desecration of a corpse.

The rest of the body was found in a narrow side streat in the city 24 hours before.

Tests have confirmed that the head and body are those of the same person.

No motive has yet emerged for the crime.

The student,who is reported to have confessed to the murder,is said to have told police he had only met the victim hours before he died.

Investigators said he wrapped the severed head in foil before putting it in his bag and setting off for the hospital.

Gustavo Silva,a commentator for CNN Portugal,told viewers the crime was ‘macabre and heinous’ but told them to stay calm because it typically only occurs ‘in a very specific context’.

Psychologist Carlos Alberto Poiares told news channel Sic Noticias: ‘One thing is clear: the crime wasn’t committed there; the body was dumped there.

‘If he had been decapitated there,the scenario would certainly have been different.’